Mother-Daughter "Accessible" Book Club: Inspired by Common Sense Media with a Twist

It is Mother's Day weekend. Reading books together can build strong connections between moms and their daughters, says the popular education and advocacy group that promotes safe technology and media for children.

Books make a big difference

Working with children means that you work with the significant adults in their lives. I’ve often found — both personally and professionally — that parents are flummoxed by the huge number of messages about raising children; all too often parenting becomes fraught with guilt.

I also know that all parents simply want the best for their children. They just may not know how to provide it. I saw this firsthand when I worked with parents who had been separated from their children due to incarceration.

Little Museum of BIG Little House Treasures

En route to Mansfield, Missouri, Laura and Almanzo’s final home, we had time to think and talk about the places connected to Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family that weren’t on our Little Journey itinerary. Once we reached Mansfield, our mileage for the Little Journey would be more than a thousand miles, so there were some places along the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway we just couldn’t include, like:

Let’s talk about poetry with Lee Bennett Hopkins

Informational Text and Young Children

So the woman who runs my local children’s book store told me that more and more parents of young children are asking for “nonfiction beginning readers” because “that’s what Common Core wants.” Really? In kindergarten and first grade? Aren’t beginning readers supposed to develop their decoding and word recognition by reading simple stories (the ones populated by talking pigs).

Because They Marched: Our interview with writer Russell Freedman

Russell Freedman was raised by parents who were involved with books and authors, so perhaps it is not surprising that he was attracted to writing. It is fortunate for readers of all ages that he was ultimately drawn to it as a full-time career.

Use Quality Audiobooks, Bookshare and Learning Ally to Support Struggling Readers

The " Notable Children’s Recordings" for 2015 are out from the American Library Association that can boost learning for children who struggle to read traditional books in print or inaccessible digital text formats.

Laura’s Little Schools

On the Little Journey, both Avery and Janet had a special interest in schools where Laura studied or taught since Avery has always loved to play school and Janet has taught students at all levels — from early elementary to graduate school. Janet writes below about the striking differences and not so surprising similarities we found between the schoolhouses in De Smet and those of today.

The end of a month

I read a statement on a publisher’s blog that resonated with me: “Black History is American History.” (The publisher is Lee & Low, a press known for publishing diverse books.)

I’ve written about this before and still believe that the sooner we get rid of hyphenated Americans, the better off we’ll be, able to have fuller discussions and let readers of all ages revel in the diversity that is us.